Our story starts like a lot of the
others; I woke in the middle of the
night to a gush of fluid. It was
clear, so I assumed it was
incontinence, something I had heard to
expect. It happened again as soon as
I woke up so I called my doctor. I
had excellent doctors who always
listened to my concerns and acted on
them. I can’t emphasize how much I
think their care and concern helped
our PROM story end on a happy note.
I went in, and they found no signs of
ferning or leaking so they didn’t
think my water was broken. I felt
much better until I went in one week
later for our 20 week ultrasound and
they found very little fluid. I
wasn’t yet aware that according to the
statistics, I should have already lost
the baby. I was referred to the high
risk clinic where we had an incredibly
emotional 40 minute ultrasound showing
a perfectly healthy baby but very
little fluid. They brought up
termination and statistics…all pretty
disheartening topics in these
scenarios, as you all know. We didn’t
have a choice; we already loved this
baby; our only option was to wait and
try bed rest and increased
fluids.
I took bed rest very seriously. I
worked myself up to 10 thirty ounce
cups of water a day and only got out
of bed to use the bathroom (once an
hour), take a quick shower, or go to
our weekly doctors appointment. At
each appointment we had an ultrasound
to check fluid levels, but we decided
not to do any vaginal exams (very
important, in my opinion), as that
could increase the likelihood of
infection. This was the hardest time
in our lives. Hour after hour in bed
I thought about losing this baby we
had tried so hard to conceive (Two
years of trying and major surgery for
level 4 endometriosis) The fluid
levels stayed low for a couple of
weeks but then much to everyone’s
surprise they started to slowly
climb. We were actually in
the “normal” level for a couple of
weeks. The doctors seemed surprised
to see us walk through the door each
week for our ultrasound. We were
fortunate to have our moms stay with
me to prepare meals and keep me sane.
This long stage lasted for 11 ½ weeks,
until Christmas day. As my husband
was preparing a holiday meal for us, I
started bleeding.
Scared, we rushed to the hospital,
where they monitored the baby for
several hours and gave us the option
of staying at the hospital or going
home. We stayed for our peace of
mind. I was 31 2/7 weeks at that
point. My hospital bed rest lasted
for about 3 weeks. My fluid levels
began to drop again and the doctors
decided we should induce at 34 weeks.
On January 14, 2005, they induced
labor. After 6 hours of pitocin, I
received my epidural and they checked
my cervix. I was only dilated to 1 ½
centimeters and the baby was
experiencing some heart decelerations
so we all decided to go ahead with a c
section. When they pulled out our
baby girl, she let out three short but
incredibly beautiful cries. My
husband saw her briefly as they took
her to evaluate her, and I held on to
those cries, praying she was ok. Her
Apgars were an awesome 8 and 9! She
weighed in at 4 pounds, 1 ounce, and
never needed oxygen. She stayed in
the hospital for a long 12 days but
miraculously only needed help with
temperature control, weight gain, and
jaundice.
Elizabeth is 6 weeks old now, and
today on her due date, she weighs
about 6 ½ pounds and has recently even
gotten the hang of nursing. We are
amazed by her every day. She was
worth every second of the miserable
bed rest! I was comforted by the
success stories on this page with
every passing week. I hope you can
relate to some aspect of our story so
you can continue to hope and pray for
a great outcome in your case. Hang in
there. A healthy baby is worth it
all!
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